Trouble using string.tr()

Ruby
1

I’ve coded up EBCDIC to ASCII translate strings. Everything is working
fine, except for the greater than symbol. (In EBCDIC, X’6E’).

What is happening is that whenever a > is in the input string, it gets
translated with the character immediately following my ‘>’ in the
TO_STRING.

I’ve spent a lot of time making sure my characters in the FROM_STRING
and TO_STRING are in the proper order.

I’ve tried escaping it to no avail. I looked in the doc index for
special notes about it, and did not see any. A Google search found
nothing either.

Any ideas? I can provide the code if needed.

Todd

2

On 5/10/07, Todd B. [email protected] wrote:

I’ve tried escaping it to no avail. I looked in the doc index for
special notes about it, and did not see any. A Google search found
nothing either.

Any ideas? I can provide the code if needed.

Todd

Please do post the code.

-A

3

On 10.05.2007 17:01, Todd B. wrote:

I’ve tried escaping it to no avail. I looked in the doc index for
special notes about it, and did not see any. A Google search found
nothing either.

Any ideas? I can provide the code if needed.

Yes, that would be good.

robert

4

Here are the two translate strings. Need more code? Thanks y’all.

$ebcdic_chars = 0x40.chr ; # blank
###$ebcdic_chars += 0xFF.chr ; # unprintable
###$ebcdic_chars += 0x00.chr ; # unprintable

$ebcdic_chars += 0XC1.chr + 0xC2.chr + 0xC3.chr + 0xC4.chr + 0xC5.chr +
0xC6.chr + 0xC7.chr + 0xC8.chr + 0xC9.chr ; # A-I
$ebcdic_chars += 0XD1.chr + 0xD2.chr + 0xD3.chr + 0xD4.chr + 0xD5.chr +
0xD6.chr + 0xD7.chr + 0xD8.chr + 0xD9.chr ; # J-R
$ebcdic_chars += 0xE2.chr + 0xE3.chr + 0xE4.chr + 0xE5.chr +
0xE6.chr + 0xE7.chr + 0xE8.chr + 0xE9.chr ; # S-Z
$ebcdic_chars += 0X81.chr + 0x82.chr + 0x83.chr + 0x84.chr + 0x85.chr +
0x86.chr + 0x87.chr + 0x88.chr + 0x89.chr ; # a-i
$ebcdic_chars += 0X91.chr + 0x92.chr + 0x93.chr + 0x94.chr + 0x95.chr +
0x96.chr + 0x97.chr + 0x98.chr + 0x99.chr ; # j-r
$ebcdic_chars += 0xA2.chr + 0xA3.chr + 0xA4.chr + 0xA5.chr +
0xA6.chr + 0xA7.chr + 0xA8.chr + 0xA9.chr ; # s-z

$ebcdic_chars += 0x4B.chr ; # .
$ebcdic_chars += 0x4C.chr ; # <
$ebcdic_chars += 0x4D.chr ; # (
$ebcdic_chars += 0x4E.chr ; # +
$ebcdic_chars += 0x4F.chr ; # |
$ebcdic_chars += 0x50.chr ; # &

$ebcdic_chars += 0x5A.chr ; # !
$ebcdic_chars += 0x5B.chr ; # $
$ebcdic_chars += 0x5C.chr ; # *
$ebcdic_chars += 0x5D.chr ; # )
$ebcdic_chars += 0x5E.chr ; # ;
$ebcdic_chars += 0x5F.chr ; # ^
$ebcdic_chars += 0x60.chr ; # -
$ebcdic_chars += 0x61.chr ; # /

$ebcdic_chars += 0x6B.chr ; # ,
$ebcdic_chars += 0x6C.chr ; # %
$ebcdic_chars += 0x6D.chr ; # _
$ebcdic_chars += 0x6E.chr ; # >
$ebcdic_chars += 0x6F.chr ; # ?
$ebcdic_chars += 0X79.chr ; # `
$ebcdic_chars += 0x7A.chr ; # :
$ebcdic_chars += 0x7B.chr ; # #
$ebcdic_chars += 0x7C.chr ; # @
$ebcdic_chars += 0x7D.chr ; # ’
$ebcdic_chars += 0x7E.chr ; # =
$ebcdic_chars += 0x7F.chr ; # "
$ebcdic_chars += 0xBA.chr ; # [
$ebcdic_chars += 0xBB.chr ; # ]
$ebcdic_chars += 0xC0.chr ; # {
$ebcdic_chars += 0xD0.chr ; # }
$ebcdic_chars += 0xE0.chr ; # \

$ascii_chars = " " ; # blank
###$ascii_chars += " " ; # make ebcdic 0XFF into a blank
###$ascii_chars += ’ ’ ; # make ebcdic 0X00 into a blank
$ascii_chars += (‘A’…‘Z’).to_a.to_s ; # A-Z
$ascii_chars += (‘a’…‘z’).to_a.to_s ; # a-z

$ascii_chars += ‘.’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘<’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘(’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘+’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘|’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘&’ ;

$ascii_chars += ‘!’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘$’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘*’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘)’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘;’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘^’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘-’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘/’ ;

$ascii_chars += ‘,’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘%’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘_’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘>’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘?’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘`’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘:’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘#’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘@’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘’’;
$ascii_chars += ‘=’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘"’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘[’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘]’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘{’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘}’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘\’ ; # escape char is special - must be doubled

$ebcdic_nums = 0xF0.chr + 0XF1.chr + 0xF2.chr + 0xF3.chr + 0xF4.chr +
0xF5.chr + 0xF6.chr + 0xF7.chr + 0xF8.chr + 0xF9.chr ;
$ascii_nums = “0123456789” ;

$ebcdic_chars += $ebcdic_nums ;
$ascii_chars += $ascii_nums ;

5

On May 10, 2007, at 11:01 AM, Todd B. wrote:

I’ve tried escaping it to no avail. I looked in the doc index for
special notes about it, and did not see any. A Google search found
nothing either.

Any ideas? I can provide the code if needed.

Todd

where does the code X’5C’ appear? (that’s a \ in ASCII) Even in
single quotes, there are two special sequences:
irb(main):001:0> a=‘\’
=> “\”
irb(main):002:0> puts a

=> nil
irb(main):003:0> b=‘'’
=> “'”
irb(main):004:0> puts b
’
=> nil

(but please do show the code!)

-Rob

Rob B. http://agileconsultingllc.com
[email protected]

6

Note, the version I’m showing has the backslash. It fails with or
without it. (and I’m not even certain that > is even valid!!)

Todd

7

In message [email protected], Todd B.
writes:

I’ve tried escaping it to no avail. I looked in the doc index for
special notes about it, and did not see any. A Google search found
nothing either.

Any ideas? I can provide the code if needed.

puts “>”.tr(‘>a’, ‘bc’) → ‘b’

So I don’t think it’s ALWAYS the case. What’s the character before ‘>’
in your FROM_STRING?

-s

8

On 10.05.2007 17:23, Todd B. wrote:

Note, the version I’m showing has the backslash. It fails with or
without it. (and I’m not even certain that > is even valid!!)

‘>’
=> “\>”

‘>’
=> “>”

The backslash is wrong there.

A more robust way to code this would be to use a HashMap - at least to
initially associate ASCII with EBCDIC chars. So, I’d rather to

CHAR_MAP = {
0XC1 => ?A,
0xC2 => ?B,

…

}

Then you can do:

ebcdic, ascii = [CHAR_MAP.keys, CHAR_MAP.values].map do |set|
set.inject("") {|st, ch| st << ch}
end

Kind regards

robert

9

I’ll need to code up a smaller example than the 400+ lines I have right
now. I’ll be able to do that soon. Thanks for the replies so far - I
need to sudy them.

Todd

10

Here a whole program that illlustrates the error. I’m running under
Windows Ruby 1.8.5. (it’s ugly and chopped up, but it works… er…
doesn’t work… er… you know what I mean)

Todd

Ruby program to convert a z/OS EBCDIC to ASCII.

class Record

The Record.report_values() method used the Record Layout info and

parses a record at a time, building the output ASCII row.

def Record.report_values(edata) ; # ebcdic data

    adata = edata.tr($ebcdic_chars, $ascii_chars) ;     # ascii data

puts “ebcdic data = #{edata}” ;
puts ;
puts “ascii data = #{adata}” ;
puts ;
end ; # def report_values

This Record.to_h() method converts a hex byte into a displayable,

human readable value. i.e. X’F5’ to “F5”.

def Record.to_h(str)
str.unpack(‘H64’).to_s.upcase ;
end ;

This method called to dump the data in hex format.

def Record.dump_area(data) ;

fsize = data.size ;
lines,last = fsize.divmod(32) # get # of full lines and figure the
remainder.
i = 0
while lines > 0
str = data[i…i+31]
hexdata = Record.to_h(str) # .unpack(‘H64’).to_s.upcase
printf( “%08X %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %8s %s\n”,
i, hexdata[0…7], hexdata[8…15],
hexdata[16…23], hexdata[24…31],
hexdata[32…39], hexdata[40…47],
hexdata[48…55], hexdata[56…63],
str.tr("\000-\037\177-\377",’.’))
i += 32; lines -= 1
end

Write out the partial line.

str = data[i…fsize]
line = sprintf("%08x “,i)
i.upto(fsize) {|x|
line << sprintf(”%2s",data[x…x].unpack(‘H2’).to_s.upcase)
if (((x+1)% 4)==0) then line << " " end
if (((x+1)%16)==0) then line << " " end
}
line << " “*(2+90-line.length)
line << sprintf(”%s\n", str.tr("\000-\037\177-\377",’.’))
printf(line)
end ;

end ; # class Record. This is the end of all the method defintions for
class Record.

def doit(data) ;

Now starts the translate table definitions. They are order-sensitive.

Do not change the order unless you have a real reason to.

$ebcdic_chars (global variable) is the “from string” portion of the

translate process.

$ascii_chars is the “to string” portion.

$ebcdic_nums is the “from string” for converting from X’F0’ through

X’F9’ (0-9 ebcdic)

$ascii_nums is the “to string” for converting to X’30’ through

X’39’ (0-9 ascii)

$ebcdic_chars = 0x40.chr ; # blank
###$ebcdic_chars += 0xFF.chr ; # unprintable
###$ebcdic_chars += 0x00.chr ; # unprintable

$ebcdic_chars += 0XC1.chr + 0xC2.chr + 0xC3.chr + 0xC4.chr + 0xC5.chr +
0xC6.chr + 0xC7.chr + 0xC8.chr + 0xC9.chr ; # A-I
$ebcdic_chars += 0XD1.chr + 0xD2.chr + 0xD3.chr + 0xD4.chr + 0xD5.chr +
0xD6.chr + 0xD7.chr + 0xD8.chr + 0xD9.chr ; # J-R
$ebcdic_chars += 0xE2.chr + 0xE3.chr + 0xE4.chr + 0xE5.chr +
0xE6.chr + 0xE7.chr + 0xE8.chr + 0xE9.chr ; # S-Z
$ebcdic_chars += 0X81.chr + 0x82.chr + 0x83.chr + 0x84.chr + 0x85.chr +
0x86.chr + 0x87.chr + 0x88.chr + 0x89.chr ; # a-i
$ebcdic_chars += 0X91.chr + 0x92.chr + 0x93.chr + 0x94.chr + 0x95.chr +
0x96.chr + 0x97.chr + 0x98.chr + 0x99.chr ; # j-r
$ebcdic_chars += 0xA2.chr + 0xA3.chr + 0xA4.chr + 0xA5.chr +
0xA6.chr + 0xA7.chr + 0xA8.chr + 0xA9.chr ; # s-z

$ebcdic_chars += 0x4B.chr ; # .
$ebcdic_chars += 0x4C.chr ; # <
$ebcdic_chars += 0x4D.chr ; # (
$ebcdic_chars += 0x4E.chr ; # +
$ebcdic_chars += 0x4F.chr ; # |
$ebcdic_chars += 0x50.chr ; # &

$ebcdic_chars += 0x5A.chr ; # !
$ebcdic_chars += 0x5B.chr ; # $
$ebcdic_chars += 0x5C.chr ; # *
$ebcdic_chars += 0x5D.chr ; # )
$ebcdic_chars += 0x5E.chr ; # ;
$ebcdic_chars += 0x5F.chr ; # ^
$ebcdic_chars += 0x60.chr ; # -
$ebcdic_chars += 0x61.chr ; # /

$ebcdic_chars += 0x6B.chr ; # ,
$ebcdic_chars += 0x6C.chr ; # %
$ebcdic_chars += 0x6D.chr ; # _
$ebcdic_chars += 0x6E.chr ; # >
$ebcdic_chars += 0x6F.chr ; # ?
$ebcdic_chars += 0X79.chr ; # `
$ebcdic_chars += 0x7A.chr ; # :
$ebcdic_chars += 0x7B.chr ; # #
$ebcdic_chars += 0x7C.chr ; # @
$ebcdic_chars += 0x7D.chr ; # ’
$ebcdic_chars += 0x7E.chr ; # =
$ebcdic_chars += 0x7F.chr ; # "
$ebcdic_chars += 0xBA.chr ; # [
$ebcdic_chars += 0xBB.chr ; # ]
$ebcdic_chars += 0xC0.chr ; # {
$ebcdic_chars += 0xD0.chr ; # }
$ebcdic_chars += 0xE0.chr ; # \

$ascii_chars = " " ; # blank
###$ascii_chars += " " ; # make ebcdic 0XFF into a blank
###$ascii_chars += ’ ’ ; # make ebcdic 0X00 into a blank
$ascii_chars += (‘A’…‘Z’).to_a.to_s ; # A-Z
$ascii_chars += (‘a’…‘z’).to_a.to_s ; # a-z

$ascii_chars += ‘.’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘<’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘(’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘+’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘|’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘&’ ;

$ascii_chars += ‘!’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘$’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘*’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘)’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘;’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘^’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘-’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘/’ ;

$ascii_chars += ‘,’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘%’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘_’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘>’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘?’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘`’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘:’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘#’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘@’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘’’;
$ascii_chars += ‘=’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘"’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘[’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘]’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘{’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘}’ ;
$ascii_chars += ‘\’ ; # escape char is special - must be doubled

$ebcdic_nums = 0xF0.chr + 0XF1.chr + 0xF2.chr + 0xF3.chr + 0xF4.chr +
0xF5.chr + 0xF6.chr + 0xF7.chr + 0xF8.chr + 0xF9.chr ;
$ascii_nums = “0123456789” ;

$ebcdic_chars += $ebcdic_nums ;
$ascii_chars += $ascii_nums ;

                                          # true if the record was

as expected, or false if not.
Record.report_values(data)

Record.dump_area( data ) ; # write offending record, in hex dump
format, to the INVALID_FORMAT file.

end ; # def doit()

instring = 0XC1.chr + 0xC2.chr + 0x6E.chr + 0xC1.chr + 0xC1.chr +
0x4C.chr + 0xC1.chr + 0xC3.chr ; # EBCDIC for “AB>AA<AC”

doit(instring) ; # run the program.

11

Rob B. wrote:

where does the code X’5C’ appear? (that’s a \ in ASCII)

In ebcdic, a 0X5C is an asterisk. In ebcdic, a 0XE0 is an backslash.
Both are in from_string.

Todd

12

unknown wrote:

So I don’t think it’s ALWAYS the case. What’s the character before ‘>’
in your FROM_STRING?

-s

The character prior to the > is an underscore. Todd

13

Robert K. wrote:

The backslash is wrong there.

Correct. I thought it was. I was grasping for straws.

Robert K. wrote:

A more robust way to code this would be to use a HashMap - at least to
initially associate ASCII with EBCDIC chars. So, I’d rather to

CHAR_MAP = {
0XC1 => ?A,
0xC2 => ?B,

…

}

Then you can do:

ebcdic, ascii = [CHAR_MAP.keys, CHAR_MAP.values].map do |set|
set.inject("") {|st, ch| st << ch}
end

Good suggestion. I haven’t used HASHes at all. However (and maybe I
don’t understand the exampe), but I added this to the very bottom of my
script:

char_map = {
0XC1 => ?A ,
0XC2 => ?B,
0XC3 => ?C,
0XC4 => ?D,
0X6E => ?>,
0XF1 => ?1,
0XF2 => ?2,
0XF3 => ?3,
0XF4 => ?4
}

ebcdic, ascii = [char_map.keys, char_map.values].map do |set|
set.inject(instring) {|st, ch| st << ch}
end

puts “ebcdic = #{ebcdic}” ;
puts “ascii = #{ascii}” ;
puts “instring = #{instring}” ;

and it produced some REALLY weird data. What did I do wrong?

14

Here’s another twist.

If I set

instring = 0xF1.chr + 0xF2.chr + 0x4B.chr + 0xF3.chr + 0xF4.chr

which is ebcdic for “12.34”, I get “45.67” in ascii. It looks like
something ( tr() maybe? ) is swallowing characters.

Todd

15

Todd B. wrote:

Here’s another twist.

If I set

instring = 0xF1.chr + 0xF2.chr + 0x4B.chr + 0xF3.chr + 0xF4.chr

which is ebcdic for “12.34”, I get “45.67” in ascii. It looks like
something ( tr() maybe? ) is swallowing characters.

Moving the numbers to the front of the FROM_STRING and the TO_STRING has
solved the problem with the 12.34 getting turned into 45.67 - but I
suspect I have just moved the error to someplace else.

Todd

16

On Fri, May 11, 2007 at 01:54:36AM +0900, Todd B. wrote:

Here’s another twist.

If I set

instring = 0xF1.chr + 0xF2.chr + 0x4B.chr + 0xF3.chr + 0xF4.chr

which is ebcdic for “12.34”, I get “45.67” in ascii. It looks like
something ( tr() maybe? ) is swallowing characters.

Have you tried just funnelling the data through some other tool? For
instance on *nix there’s dd(1) which will do the conversion for you. Or
GNU’s recode[1] which will take care of it, and the both take stdin and
stdout parameters.

I know you are on a windows machine, but if you have cygwin or the gnu
utilities for Win32 you should be able to take care of it via a system()
or %x{} call in ruby.

Here is a sample OSX version using Open3.

> cat ebcdic2ascii.rb
#!/usr/bin/env ruby

require 'open3'
DD="/bin/dd conv=ascii"
RECODE="/opt/local/bin/recode EBCDIC..ASCII"
INPUT= 0xF1.chr + 0xF2.chr + 0x4B.chr + 0xF3.chr + 0xF4.chr

dd_output = nil
Open3.popen3(DD) do |stdin,stdout,stderr|
    stdin.write(INPUT)
    stdin.close
    dd_output = stdout.read
end

recode_output = nil
Open3.popen3(RECODE) do |stdin,stdout,stderr|
    stdin.write(INPUT)
    stdin.close
    recode_output = stdout.read
end

puts "#{"%10s %10s %10s" % %w(EBCDIC dd recode)}"
INPUT.size.times do |i|
    e = "0x%02x" % INPUT[i]
    puts "#{"%10s %10s %10s" %

[e,dd_output[i].chr,recode_output[i].chr]}"
end

> ruby ebcdic2ascii.rb
EBCDIC         dd     recode
  0xf1          1          1
  0xf2          2          2
  0x4b          .          .
  0xf3          3          3
  0xf4          4          4

Some old ruby-talk[2] postings talk about using Iconv but that the code
sample in the msg doesn’t seem to work anymore

enjoy,

-jeremy

1 - Recode
2 - http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/66280

17

Jeremy H. wrote:

Have you tried just funnelling the data through some other tool?

No, and I would rather not. Your example seems pretty thorough.

I think I’ve narrowed it down to string#tr is broken. I rebuilt my
translate strings with all hex codes for non-alphanumeric characters,
like this:

$ebcdic_nums = 0xF0.chr + 0XF1.chr + 0xF2.chr + 0xF3.chr + 0xF4.chr +
0xF5.chr + 0xF6.chr + 0xF7.chr + 0xF8.chr + 0xF9.chr ;
$ascii_nums = “0123456789” ;

$ebcdic_chars = $ebcdic_nums ;
$ascii_chars = $ascii_nums ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x40.chr ; # blank
$ascii_chars += 0x20.chr ;

###$ebcdic_chars += 0xFF.chr ; # unprintable
###$ebcdic_chars += 0x00.chr ; # unprintable
###$ascii_chars += " " ; # make ebcdic 0XFF into a blank
###$ascii_chars += ’ ’ ; # make ebcdic 0X00 into a blank

$ebcdic_chars += 0XC1.chr + 0xC2.chr + 0xC3.chr + 0xC4.chr + 0xC5.chr +
0xC6.chr + 0xC7.chr + 0xC8.chr + 0xC9.chr ; # A-I
$ebcdic_chars += 0XD1.chr + 0xD2.chr + 0xD3.chr + 0xD4.chr + 0xD5.chr +
0xD6.chr + 0xD7.chr + 0xD8.chr + 0xD9.chr ; # J-R
$ebcdic_chars += 0xE2.chr + 0xE3.chr + 0xE4.chr + 0xE5.chr +
0xE6.chr + 0xE7.chr + 0xE8.chr + 0xE9.chr ; # S-Z
$ebcdic_chars += 0X81.chr + 0x82.chr + 0x83.chr + 0x84.chr + 0x85.chr +
0x86.chr + 0x87.chr + 0x88.chr + 0x89.chr ; # a-i
$ebcdic_chars += 0X91.chr + 0x92.chr + 0x93.chr + 0x94.chr + 0x95.chr +
0x96.chr + 0x97.chr + 0x98.chr + 0x99.chr ; # j-r
$ebcdic_chars += 0xA2.chr + 0xA3.chr + 0xA4.chr + 0xA5.chr +
0xA6.chr + 0xA7.chr + 0xA8.chr + 0xA9.chr ; # s-z

$ascii_chars += (‘A’…‘Z’).to_a.to_s ; # A-Z
$ascii_chars += (‘a’…‘z’).to_a.to_s ; # a-z

$ebcdic_chars += 0x4B.chr ; # .
$ascii_chars += 0x2E.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x6E.chr ; # >
$ascii_chars += 0x3E.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x4C.chr ; # <
$ascii_chars += 0x3C.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x4D.chr ; # (
$ascii_chars += 0x28.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x5D.chr ; # )
$ascii_chars += 0x29.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x4E.chr ; # +
$ascii_chars += 0x2B.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x4F.chr ; # |
$ascii_chars += 0x7C.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x5A.chr ; # !
$ascii_chars += 0x21.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x5B.chr ; # $
$ascii_chars += 0x24.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x5C.chr ; # *
$ascii_chars += 0x2A.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x5E.chr ; # ;
$ascii_chars += 0x3B.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x5F.chr ; # ^
$ascii_chars += 0x5E.chr ;

#$ebcdic_chars += 0x60.chr ; # -
#$ascii_chars += 0x2D.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x61.chr ; # /
$ascii_chars += 0x2F.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x6B.chr ; # ,
$ascii_chars += 0x2C.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x6C.chr ; # %
$ascii_chars += 0x25.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x6D.chr ; # _
$ascii_chars += 0x5F.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x6F.chr ; # ?
$ascii_chars += 0x3F.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x79.chr ; # `
$ascii_chars += 0x60.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x7A.chr ; # :
$ascii_chars += 0x3A.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x7B.chr ; # #
$ascii_chars += 0x23.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x7C.chr ; # @
$ascii_chars += 0x40.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x7D.chr ; # ’
$ascii_chars += 0x27.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x7E.chr ; # =
$ascii_chars += 0x3D.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x7F.chr ; # "
$ascii_chars += 0x22.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0xBA.chr ; # [
$ascii_chars += 0x5B.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0xBB.chr ; # ]
$ascii_chars += 0x5D.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0xC0.chr ; # {
$ascii_chars += 0x7B.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0xD0.chr ; # }
$ascii_chars += 0x7D.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0xE0.chr ; #
$ascii_chars += 0x5C.chr ;

$ebcdic_chars += 0x50.chr ; # &
$ascii_chars += 0x26.chr ;

I derived the ASCII character codes by writing this 1 line script:

puts ARGV[0].unpack(‘H64’).to_s.upcase ;

Then, I enter:

ruby charcnvt.rb ‘-’

and it responds that the hex code for minus (hyphen) is 0x2D. Ok, fine.
However, then I do the translate, and it converts my ebcdic 0x60 into
ascii 0x2C (a comma) instead of 0x2D.

18

(up above, I had the 0x60 / 0x2D pair commented out while I was testing
other possibilities. When not commented out, it failed)

I still havent ruled out the possibility of another character hosing the
string. I’ll reorder my strings in ASCII sequence and see if that
changes anything.

This is killing me.

19

On May 10, 2007, at 12:39 PM, Todd B. wrote:

Here a whole program that illlustrates the error. I’m running under
Windows Ruby 1.8.5. (it’s ugly and chopped up, but it works… er…
doesn’t work… er… you know what I mean)

Todd

First, damn you for getting me interested in this :wink:

Here’s a whole program (with a couple tests!) that uses an array to
map from an EBCDIC index to a single character ASCII string (easier
to construct than the character value).

I hope you find some useful idioms in there.

-Rob

Rob B. http://agileconsultingllc.com
[email protected]

#!/usr/bin/env ruby -w

Ruby program to convert a z/OS EBCDIC to ASCII.

class Record
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII = Array.new(256) # the EBCDIC position holds the
ASCII value

EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x40] = ’ ’

EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x81…0x89] = [‘a’…‘i’]
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x91…0x99] = [‘j’…‘r’]
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0xA2…0xA9] = [‘s’…‘z’]
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0xC1…0xC9] = [‘A’…‘I’]
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0xD1…0xD9] = [‘J’…‘R’]
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0xE2…0xE9] = [‘S’…‘Z’]

EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x4B] = ‘.’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x4C] = ‘<’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x4D] = ‘(’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x4E] = ‘+’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x4F] = ‘|’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x50] = ‘&’

EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x5A] = ‘!’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x5B] = ‘$’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x5C] = ‘*’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x5D] = ‘)’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x5E] = ‘;’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x5F] = ‘^’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x60] = ‘-’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x61] = ‘/’

EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x6B] = ‘,’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x6C] = ‘%’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x6D] = ‘_’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x6E] = ‘>’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x6F] = ‘?’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0X79] = ‘`’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x7A] = ‘:’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x7B] = ‘#’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x7C] = ‘@’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x7D] = ‘'’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x7E] = ‘=’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0x7F] = ‘"’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0xBA] = ‘[’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0xBB] = ‘]’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0xC0] = ‘{’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0xD0] = ‘}’
EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0xE0] = ‘\’

EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[0xF0…0xF9] = [*‘0’…‘9’]

def self.to_ascii str
str.split(//).map {|e| EBCDIC_TO_ASCII[e[0]] || 0.chr }.join
end

This Record.to_h() method converts a hex byte into a

displayable, human

readable value. i.e. X’F5’ to “F5”.

def self.to_h str, chunk=32
str.unpack(‘H*’).first.scan(/.{2,#{2*chunk}}/).join(“\n”)
end

This method called to dump the data in hex format.

def self.dump_area data, chunk=16
fsize = data.size
lines,last = fsize.divmod(chunk) # get # of full lines and
figure the remainder.
i = 0
lines.downto(0) do
str = data[i,chunk]
hexdata = str.unpack(‘H*’).first.scan(/.{2,8}/).join(" “)
#.upcase
printf “%08X %s %s\n”, i, hexdata, to_ascii(str).tr(”\000-
\037\177-\377",‘.’)
i += chunk
end
end
end

if FILE == $0
require ‘test/unit’

puts “EBCDIC Table”
Record.dump_area((0…Record::EBCDIC_TO_ASCII.size).map{|e|
e.chr}.join)

class EbcdicTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
def setup
@instring_ascii = “AB>AA<AC”
# EBCDIC for “AB>AA<AC”
@instring_ebcdic = 0XC1.chr + 0xC2.chr + 0x6E.chr + 0xC1.chr +
0xC1.chr + 0x4C.chr + 0xC1.chr + 0xC3.chr
end

 def test_simple
   assert_equal @instring_ascii, Record.to_ascii(@instring_ebcdic)
 end
 def test_numbers
   @expected = "$1,234.95"
   #            $     1     ,     2     3     4     .     9     5
   @input = [0x5B, 0xF1, 0x6B, 0xF2, 0xF3, 0xF4, 0x4B, 0xF9,

0xF5].map {|e| e.chr}.join
assert_equal @expected, Record.to_ascii(@input)
end
end
end
END

20

Pit - you are DA MAN!!! WOO-HOO!!! Success with just the few things
you pointed out did the trick!! I am one very happy geek!!
WOO-HOO!!!

Pit C. wrote:

first, in case you don’t know, you don’t have to terminate statements
with “;”.

Yes, I know. It’s a habit. I write in so many languages where it is
either optional or required, I simply choose to use it all the time.
Sometimes, I don’t know my fingers even added it.

Pit C. wrote:

Second, it’s better to fill $ebcdic_chars and $ascii_chars
once at the beginning of your program and not every time the method
#doit is called.

Absolutely. This was chopped up from my much larger program. And even
then, #doit is only called once. My plan is to take these tables out of
global variables and make them constants in another Module.

So, are you somewhere were I could buy you a cold beverage? It would be
my pleasure!

Todd (Katy, Texas)